Hamza Kashgari To Be Released??

The blog Saudi Jeans has reported that Hamza Kashgari "will be freed in the next few weeks": Hamza Kashgari To Be Released. (If for some reason you don't know who Hamza Kashgari is and what this is all about, look here, and here, and here, and here ....)

Certainly it will be welcome news, if it turns out to be true, when and if Hamza Kashgari is released, unharmed, from prison. But there are several troubling things about the story, as reported by Saudi Jeans.

First of all, and most disturbing of all, there is the the fact that he will apparently continue to be incarcerated for a "few weeks".

Second of all, the release, if it takes place, has been granted only on the condition of Hamza Kashgari's "repentance". According to Saudi Jeans, "a Sharia court in the capital has ratified his repentance in the presence of his family, and that he showed his regret over what he has written about the Prophet." In other words, it's starting to sound like "Hamza Kashgari" could end up being Arabic for "Winston Smith".

The third troubling aspect of all this is that Saudi Jeans also reports that he has been unable to reach Hamza Kashgari's lawyer directly. One would think that the lawyer of a man about to freed from prison would be eager to publicly confirm such good news.

At the very least all of this suggests that Kashgari's family, friends and associates are under a great deal of pressure to keep a low profile. But far worse things are distinctly possible. Has Kashgari been tortured or otherwise abused by the Saudis, or is he being threatened with torture and/or prolonged imprisonment if he and his family and friends and associates don't cooperate and act sufficiently "repentant"?

"I don't like to talk about it"

.
A student once asked Zen Master Joshu:

"Master, what is the style of teaching in your lineage?"

The Master answered:

"I don't like to talk about it."

The student then asked:

"But Master, why don't you like to talk about it?"

The Master replied:

"Because that is the style of teaching in my lineage."


(Somewhat loosely adapted from the chao-chou ch'an shih yü lu, The Recorded Sayings of Master Joshu, translated into English by James Green (googlebooks link).)

Hamza Kashgari: Malaysia Govt Minister Doubles Down on Extradition, & Other News of Note

Before getting to the main focus of this post (referred to in the title) I want to mention five other interesting news items related to the case of Hamza Kashgari. First off, March 14 has been declared International Day of Action to Defend Blasphemers and Apostates. For more information see this facebook page and also this blog post by Iranian-British human rights activist Maryam Namazie. Second of all there is an analysis piece on the current political and economic situation in Saudi Arabia in the latest issue of The Economist, and mention is made therein of the cynical way in which Hamza Kashgari's case is being exploited by the Saudi government: Out of the comfort zone: Growing unemployment and political tensions are buffeting the kingdom. The Third story is a report that the United Nations High Commission for Refugees (UNHCR) had formally requested access to Hamza Kashgari while he was still being held in Malaysia before being extradited to Saudi Arabia, but this request was denied: UNHCR says not given access to blogger (this is not a new story, it's from mid-February, but somehow I missed it at the time). The Fourth story is a piece that appeared a couple days ago in the New Yorker: Rick Santorum, Meet Hamza Kashgari. Fifth up is the story of Erykha Badu's banning from Malaysia, which I think provides some valuable insight into this "moderate" Muslim nation: Badu victim of Malaysian politics.

Now on to the main story for this post!

Nazri Aziz is the Minister for the Department of Parliamentary Affairs in the Malaysian government, and he is also the former Minister of Legal Affairs and Judicial Reforms. He is sometimes referred to as "the de facto Law Minister". Here is an unflattering profile of him from last September from FreeMalaysiaToday.Com: The Defective Law Minister.

Aziz has now waded into the continuing scandal over the illegal (under both international law and the Malaysian Constitution) extradition of Hamza Kashgari to Saudi Arabia on February 12. The outrageous nature of this act is compounded by the fact that not only was the UNHCR seeking access to Kashgari, a Malaysian court actually ruled in favor of Kashgari and granted an injunction against his extradition! But Malaysian government officials had secretly rushed with the extradition so they could spirit the 23-year old Saudi writer out of Malaysia before the UNHCR could see him and just hours before the injunction was handed down (see timeline here).

So what does the "Defective/De Facto Law Minister" Nazri Aziz have to say about all this? "If we did not send him back, it will then be inconsistent with what we do over here. The government does not want to be seen as hypocrites. And thus, the deportation." Aziz further clarified these remarks by insisting that Hamza Kashgari's now famous tweets were in his opinion "seditious" and what Kashgari did would also be considered a serious crime in Malaysia. "It is seditious. What he did could incite anger and hatred, and is racially sensitive. We could try him in our own court." He also stated that no extradition treaty is needed between Malaysia and Saudi Arabia because the two nations are "Brotherly Muslim countries".
Sources:
"We're justified in deporting Saudi writer" Malay Mail
"We don’t need an extradition agreement" FreeMalaysiaToday.Com

R.I.P. Davy Jones

The Monkees were my heroes when I was, well, too young to know better. Oh, to be too young to know better again! Farewell Davy! A bit of my tender youth goes with you!

Gods Bless America

You might also want to check out: Gods Bless the Navy SEALs.

"The Core Of All Magickal Work" (On Ivo Dominguez' new book)

"In it's fullness, a Circle can contain a richness so complete that if all of Wicca were lost except for the way to cast a Circle, and its symbolism, the faith would renew itself from that one seed."

Ivo Dominguez is a true Renaissance Man among modern Pagans, Witches, and Magicians. And the full range of his expertise and experience as a teacher, elder, adept, researcher, writer, and visionary all come together in his book Casting Sacred Space: The Core of all Magickal Work.

Ivo has the (almost unheard of) ability to combine very practical and accessible instruction in the basics of Magick with just the right amount of theory and background. The result is that the student is able to slowly build up an understanding of Magick without being overwhelmed by mystagogical arcana. And what makes Ivo's magickal teachings even more valuable (and unusual) is that he not only grounds his magick solidly in the Pagan tradition, but in the most well-known and arguably most widespread tradition of modern Paganism: Wicca. This book could (dare we hope?) go a long way toward eradicating the (all-too-often, it must be admitted, all-too-well-deserved) stereotype of Wiccans as "Fluffy-Bunnies", "McWitches", "Playgans", "One-Book-Witches", etc. In a word, Ivo shows how you can have it all: Wicca plus real Magick and real Paganism.

But don't take my word for it: here is what T. Thorn Coyle has to say in her Forward to the book:

"A strong Magician or Witch fully shoulders her responsibility. This book of castings is not only an amazing compendium of innovative ways to move and shape energy forms; it also serves as a comprehensive primer on how to change the individual in order to better change the world. The work is placed in the context of other systems of magick should one wish to broaden one’s scope of knowledge and mastery, while providing enough information for beginning these unique practices from any level of experience and study. There are many treasures here. I hope that the magick held in this book not only intrigues you with its sheer novelty, but also spurs you onward and inward with its potential. If we read carefully and practice diligently, we will learn to change and be changed, in accordance with our ever-strengthening knowledge and will.

And here is how Ivo describes what he sets out to do in the book (from the Introduction):

"Casting Sacred Space is meant to provide a safe and sane introduction to the knowledge and techniques needed to embark upon journeys into magick. The first half of the book supplies some philosophical and theoretical underpinnings in order to make the castings offered in the second half of the book accessible and effective. Hopefully, a balance between theory and practice has been struck that will encourage the development of both understanding and proficiency in the creation of sacred and magickal space . . . .

"This book explores a number of approaches to the creation, delineation, and understanding of ritual that open the way to sacred space. The entry into sacred space is one of the most direct routes to the fountainhead of spiritual and metaphysical experience. For most of us, the thrill of the experience that called us to our paths is heralded by crossing the borderline into a wider universe. When you took your first step onto your path of magickal and spiritual development, did you not long for the strange skies of the otherworlds, conversations with the Shining Ones, keys to the gates, or the smell of flowers in a Faerie glade?"

Here is the book's page at the publisher's website: The Casting Sacred Space page at Redwheel/Weiser.

Of course the best way to buy the book is from a Pagan owned and operated local bookstore, like Bell, Book and Candle in Dover, Delaware; or The Crystal Fox in Laurel, Maryland.

Oh, and while I'm listing links, here is the author's Facebook page: Ivo's Facebook Page.

And, finally, here are some reviews of Casting Sacred Space: The Core of all Magickal Work (the review from DailyOm has more of Thorn's Forward and more of Ivo's Introduction):

• Bob Freeman's review
• Freeman Presson's review
• Gnostalgia's review
• DailyOm's review

What Makes Rick Santorum Vomit

On September 7, 1960, a full page ad appeared in the New York Times stating that the fact that John F. Kennedy was a Catholic was a "legitimate issue" in the presidential campaign. This add was sponsored by a group of Protestant ministers headed up by Norman Vincent Peale.

Having been attacked very publicly by a prominent group of respected conservative Protestants, how did Kennedy respond? He went straight into the lion's den, so to speak.

On September 12, just five days after the NYT ad appeared, Kennedy addressed a group of 300 conservative Protestant evangelicals in Houston, Texas. He told them plainly and simply: "I believe in an America where there is an absolute separation between church and state." And then he asked them if they had any questions. And he had the whole damned thing televised. Live.

In the biography, JFK: An Unfinished Life, Robert Dallek describes the atmosphere surrounding the famous speech that Kennedy gave to the Greater Houston Ministerial Association on September 12, 1960 as follows:

Religion remained an obstacle. On September 7 [1960], the New York Times carried a front-page article about the ironically named National Conference of Citizens for Religious Freedom, an organization of 150 Protestant ministers led by Dr. Norman Vincent Peale; they said that the Roman Catholic Church, with its dual role as both a church and a temporal state, make Kennedy's faith a legitimate issue in the campaign. Like Kruschev, one member declared, Kennedy was 'a captive of a system.' Although the clergymen were all conservative Republicans eager for Nixon's election (and were guilty of transparent hypocrisy in doing what they said Kennedy's church would do -- interfere in secular politics), their political machinations did not cancel out the effects of their warnings.

Estimates suggested that unless this propaganda was countered and the anti-Catholic bias overcome, Kennedy's religion might cost him as many as 1.5 million votes. The Kennedy campaign quickly organized a Community Relations division to meet the religious problem head-on. James Wine, a staff member at the National Council of Churches, headed the operation. Wine was as busy as any member of Jack's campaign team, answering between six hundred and a thousand letters a week and using lay and clerical Protestants to combat the explicit and implicit anti-Catholicism in so much of the anti-Kennedy rhetoric.

A highly effective and much publicized appearance made before a group of Protestant ministers in Houston, Texas, on September 12 helped. Bobby, Jack's campaign staff, Johnson, and Rayburn all advised against the appearance. 'They're mostly Republicans and they're out to get you,' Rayburn told Kennedy. But Kennedy believed he had to confront the issue sometime, and he wanted to do it early in the campaign so that he could move on to more constructive matters. 'I'm getting tired of people who think I want to replace the gold at Fort Knox with a supply of holy water.' he told O'Donnell and Powers. In fact, his knowledge of Church doctrine and ties to the Church were so limited that he brought in John Cogley, a Catholic scholar, to coach him in preparation for the appearance.

Although he saw his speech and response to audience questions, which were to follow his remarks, as a crucial moment in the campaign, Kennedy went before the audience of three hundred in Houston's Rice Hotel Crystal ballroom (and the millions of television viewers across the country) with no hesitation or obvious sign of nervousness. The sincerity of what he had to say armed him against his adversaries and conveyed a degree of inner surety that converted a few opponents and persuaded some undecided voters that he had the maturity and balance to become a fine president.
[pp. 282-283]

This was not the first time that Kennedy had tackled the issue. Here is how Dallek describes the way Kennedy responded to reporters who asked about his religion when he first announced his candidacy for the Democratic nomination on January 2, 1960:

As for the likely debate to erupt over his religion, he also gave an unqualified response. He acknowledged that it would be a matter of substantial discussion. But he saw only one concern for voters: 'Does a candidate believe in the Constitution, does he believe in the First Amendment, does he believe in the separation of church and state.' Having said that, he dismissed the issue as one that had been settled 160 years ago and concluded that he saw 'no value in discussing a matter which is that ancient, when there are so many issues in 1960 which are going to be important.'
[p. 244]

The bigots who were attacking Kennedy for being Catholic were nothing other than the 1960 forerunners of today's Tea Party movement and their ilk. Kennedy succeeded in publicly shaming these bigots in a way that I doubt any 21st century American politician would be capable of pulling off today.

JFK is long gone, but the same religious bigots are still with us, even if they have changed their stripes very slightly. Today the evangelical theocrats have a bigger tent, and they now include Catholics and, perhaps, even Mormons. But these are the same people (sometimes quite literally) who opposed having a Catholic president while claiming to support "religious freedom" and who opposed Civil Rights in the name of "individual liberty".

Kennedy's speech is brilliant, and its brilliance will echo through history. I guess Santorum can take some comfort in the fact that there is no one like Jack Kennedy in modern American politics.

Hamza Kashgari: a roundup of some recent news and views

• "We are all Hamza Kashgari"

article in the just released 48th issue of Wasla, the journal of the Arabic Network for Human Rights Information. Here is a link to the journal, but it is mostly in Arabic (including the article on Kashgari). And here is a link to an English language description of this issue's contents.

• A Tweet To Mohammed

by Cabalamuse, a Morrocan blogger, who notes: "Ironically, it hasn’t been two years since Prince Saud al-Faisal said to an American journalist that Saudi Arabia is 'breaking away from the shackles of the past.'"

• PM's credentials shaken by journalist's deportation

by Jonathan Manthorpe writing for the Vancouver Sun. The article critiques Malaysian Prime Minister Najib Razak's human rights record, with special attention to the extradition of Hamza Kashgari back to Saudi Arabia.

• In What Century Saudi Rulers Live?

by Kurdish journalist Nazik Zada, who writes "Sometimes I wonder what century the leaders of Saudi Arabia think they live in. In the age of globalization, Internet and social media, they should know that every abuse would be recorded, every lash will be written about, and every Saudi woman deprived of a vote will be supported by millions of other women around the world.

• From the palace to the protest Talking to Sultan al-Qassemi

An interview in Lebanon Now with Sultan al-Qassemi, who is a columnist, blogger and Emirati royal family member.

And finally here is a video from a protest at the Saudi embassy in Ottowa, Canada. The protest took place yesterday, Sunday, February 26, 2012, and was sponsored by Muslims for Progressive Values, Canada:

Hamza Kashgari Case Not Going Away

Although the western mainstream media is doing its best to downplay or even completely ignore the case of the imprisoned 23 year old Saudi writer Hamza Kashgari, the world-wide campaign on his behalf is gathering momentum and shows no sign of losing steam.

The London based human rights group Article 19 has released a statement and put together a helpful timeline of events:
Saudi Arabia and Malaysia violate rights of Saudi tweeter

The group Anonymous may or may not be behind the flooding of the Chicago Tribune's Facebook page with messages in support of Hamza Kashgari (link). And Anonymous also may or may not be behind this youtube video in support of Kashgari.

Gulf News has reported another twitter related religious controversy in Saudi Arabia: a Saudi national named Hamoud Saleh Al Amri, who lives in Mecca, has reportedly posted tweets about his conversion to Christianity, leading to calls for his arrest, trial and execution:
Another Saudi wades into controversy for insulting tweets

This appears to be the same Hamoud Saleh Al Amri who has been arrested previously for similar reasons in 2004, 2008, and 2009, according to a 2009 story from the fundamentalist Christian missionary group Compass Direct:
Authorities Release Christian Blogger

I am not a big fan of Richard Cohen, but his column two days ago in the Washington Post on Hamza Kashgari is getting a lot of attention, and that is a good thing:
The plight of Hamza Kashgari

And there continues to be outrage in Malaysia in response to the dastardly (that's right: dastardly) role of the Malaysian government in delivering Kashgari over to the Saudis, including ongoing legal efforts to expose the literally criminal behavior of the Malaysian officials involved in violation of international law and the Malaysian Constitution:
Kashgari's habeas corpus application struck out (New Straights Times, Singapore)

Meanwhile, Islamic scholar Dr. Wael Shihab (writing for OnIslam.Net) is trying to have it both ways in his little essay Tweets on the Prophet: Islamic Thoughts. On the one hand, Dr. Shihab comes out against any punishment for Kashgari, saying that "misunderstanding isn't apostasy". But the clear implication is that actual apostasy should still be treated as criminal activity! Also, Dr. Shihab insists that Twitter, Facebook, etc, need to adopt a "Code of Ethics" that will protect only "responsible freedom of expression", while systematically censoring anything "attacking people’s beliefs, honor, or values"!

Lastly, the Middle East Media Research Institute ran a piece yesterday that is notable for documenting a broad spectrum of responses to Kashgari's case both inside Saudi Arabia itself and elsewhere in the Arab world:
Controversy in Saudi Arabia Over Journalist's Tweets about the Prophet Muhammad